NASA has officially confirmed that Earth has a “second moon” called 2025 PN7, though it’s technically a quasi moon that travels around the sun in near lockstep with our planet rather than orbiting us directly. First spotted by researchers in Hawaii over the summer using the Pan-STARRS telescope, the asteroid sized rock has likely been our close neighbor for about 60 years but remained invisible without large telescopes capable of scanning vast areas of sky. Astrophysicists from Northeastern University reveal that 2025 PN7 is just one of at least six other quasi moons currently shadowing Earth, all traveling on similar orbits that remain reasonably stable over many years.
The celestial object belongs to the Arjuna asteroid group and is roughly the size of a small office building, about 20 meters across, making it approximately a quadrillion times less massive than our actual moon. Because the quasi moon isn’t gravitationally bound to Earth like the real moon, it will eventually drift off into space around 2083 after spending roughly 120 years as our cosmic companion. Despite its proximity, the tiny asteroid will have virtually no gravitational impact on Earth’s tides or anything else due to its small size. The discovery highlights how much we still have to learn about objects in our own solar system, with the new Rubin Observatory expected to find many more fascinating celestial neighbors in the years ahead.
